Help us grow and fly to Paris

As we gear up for this fall's Congressional fights, our membership must take flight AND YOU CAN HELP!

The first ten recipients of this newsletter to nominate just five friends for FOTB's free monthly e-newsletter HERE win a $150 airline gift card!

The first ten to nominate ten friends win a $400 airline gift card!

The first ten to nominate twenty friends to sign up win $1,000 airline gift card!

"Friends" must be colleagues in the banking industry (bankers or trades supporting banking) with legitimate email addresses. Gift cards will be from winner's choice of Delta Airlines, American Airlines, or Southwest Airlines. Contest winners can only claim one prize (so you would surrender your $150 prize if you later hit the $400 prize, and surrender the $400 if you later hit the $1,000 prize). Contest ends August 31, 2026 and gift cards will be delivered to winners within 30 days of contest ending.

New York's Stefanova Named Banker Board Rep

Katina Stefanova has been appointed to represent the state of New York on FOTB's Nationwide Banker Board. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Marto LLC, a New York-based asset management firm that focuses on asset advisory and management. Alongside

founding Marto, she also established Marto

Capital, a hedge fund running a macroeconomic strategy managing money for large institutional investors, where she served as its Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to founding Marto, Katina Stefanova spent over 9 years at Bridgewater

Associates, where she began her career as a Senior Investment Associate. She later

became a Management Committee Advisor, where she held leadership roles

overseeing various areas of the firm. Before that, Katina was a senior leader in the

financial services and technology space, including serving as a Director of

Business Strategy at IBM. She is also the co-founder of AcordIQ, which delivers

state-of-the-art portfolio intelligence and governance solutions with expert

consulting services to asset managers and institutional investors, and Marto

Capital, a New York-based hedge fund. Katina served as an Investment

Committee Member of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund.

Katina frequently speaks at many conferences and events across the globe on topics

including investing, technology, and entrepreneurship and is a thought leader on

disruption in the asset management industry. Katina's articles have been published

by Forbes, the European Hedge Fund Journal, Institutional Investor, and others.

Katina holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in International

Relations from Brigham Young University, where she graduated summa cum

laude.

Lanter Selected to Rep DC on FOTB Banker Board

Steven Lanter has been selected to be the District of Columbia's representative on FOTB's Nationwide Banker Board. He is a partner at Luse Gorman, PC, a Washington, D.C.-headquartered law firm specializing in the representation of financial institutions on a wide range of securities, corporate, executive compensation and enforcement and bank regulatory matters for more than 25 years.

Steve manages merger and acquisition transactions and complex corporate reorganizations for banks and their holding companies. He routinely advises executive management and boards of directors on capital raising and merger transactions and corporate governance matters, including stockholder relations and defensive strategies in dealing with activist stockholders. He has also advised dozens of investor groups on bank acquisitions and de novo bank charters.

Mr. Lanter received his B.A. degree from Duke University and his law degree from

Georgetown University. In his free time, he sings in a contemporary and classic rock band, and enjoys spending time with his three young-adult children and playing golf.

BANKER NEWS BITS:

• Over 50,000 Nationwide Now "Friends of Traditional Banking," according to American Banker. Growing steadily since their founding in 2012, the SuperPAC Friends of Traditional Banking (FOTB) now counts over 50,000 bankers and allies across the country as "friends." Tens of thousands of industry allies, in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico now receive the monthly free e-newsletter from FOTB and eagerly await the fall candidate endorsements. This milestone, reached at the end of May, will have tremendous implications on some key Congressional races in the fall.

• US bank regulators tout deregulatory agenda to lawmakers, reports Reuters. The nation's top bank regulators tell Congress on Thursday that their efforts to trim bank rules and oversight will bolster economic activity and innovation without injecting undue risk into the financial system. The regulatory chiefs of the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency testified before the House Financial Services Committee, where they updated lawmakers on a comprehensive effort to reconsider and soften numerous bank rules put in place following the 2008 financial crisis.

• The Cato Institute's Nicholas Anthony reported "What Congress Asked Me About the Bank Secrecy Act." Anthony is a research fellow at the Cato Institute's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, and testified before the House Financial Services this month. He answered questions about digital ID, how governments like Russia abuse the Bank Secrecy Act to go after human rights activists, the most common reason that banks are reporting their customers under the Bank Secrecy Act, the progress does the April notice of proposed rulemaking make on the status quo, and more.

• Banks "will not accept" the current form of a landmark crypto bill, says JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon in Politico. He publicly attacked Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who is broadly seen as the leader of the crypto industry's lobbying efforts. The bill, which aims to create a federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, advanced out of the Senate Banking Committee earlier in May over the vocal objections of the banking industry. Banks oppose the bill over concerns that it allows crypto companies to offer rewards programs that pay annual percentage yield, mimicking interest-bearing bank accounts without having to comply with regulations that traditional financial institutions must follow.

SPONSOR'S CORNER

The Expanding Role of ISOs - Enhancing Security & Risk Management

A message from our sponsor Navanta:

For financial institutions of all asset sizes and complexity of products and services, maintaining cyber preparedness is a daunting task against increasing cyber threats, reliance on third-party vendors, and ongoing personnel changes.

ISOs are tasked with augmented duties to enhance visibility and accountability in protecting non-public information and financial transactions across all business lines. This article highlights some of the evolving complexities of the ISO role, including the heightened management of third-party relationships, improved reporting to boards and stakeholders, and thorough risk assessments of projects and third-party entities.

See the full article from our platinum sponsor, Navanta HERE: https://navanta.com/resources/the-expanding-role-of-isos-enhancing-security-risk-management/

Friends of Traditional Banking | 175 South Main Street, Ste 1420 | Salt Lake City, UT 84111 US